- If Donald Trump’s plan was to turn the focus on Kamala Harris then he failed
- READ MORE: Follow all the latest developments on our debate live blog
Donald Trump‘s aides had a plan. Keep the focus on Kamala Harris, painting her as a San Francisco liberal who was tied to every mistake ever made by Joe Biden.
It didn’t last a minute.
Harris rattled him from the moment she strode across the stage, introducing herself by name and shaking his hand like an eager freshman arriving on campus.
Minutes later she sprung her trap with a choreographed dig about his rallies, ridiculing his speeches about Hannibal Lecter and windmills that cause cancer and, most cuttingly, pointing out that his supporters head for the exits before he has finished speaking.
It touched a nerve, as she knew it would.
Donald Trump quickly pivoted to personal attacks on Kamala Harris and wild claims about immigrants during the debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday night
‘We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,’ he responded, before blaming Harris for the uncontrolled immigration which he said motivated supporters.
‘The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.
‘And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.’
Harris put her head to one side, brow knitted, raising her hand to her chin.
Then she gave the broadest of grins and laughed.
Her body language said it all: I can’t believe he took the bait.
Conservative commentator Matt K. Lewis said that what the debate lacked in intellectual firepower in made up for in sheer entertainment.
And it betrayed Trump’s long standing weakness, he said, in his obvious lack of discipline.
‘I think that the crazy thing is that her team has been saying for days now that that was her strategy, that she was going to try to troll Trump and get under his skin,’ he said.
‘And then she did.’
Harris made a beeline for Trump as they took the stage. ‘Kamala Harris,’ she said, extending her hand and introducing herself as they met for the first time
Harris looked at Trump as he spoke, knitting her brow at times
She laid a series of traps for him which he could not resist triggering
Trump’s aides privately and publicly urged him to keep the focus on her and stay away from personal attacks.
Writing for DailyMail.com last week, Trump ally Kellyanne Conway set out the thinking and explained the advice she gave him when he was up against Hillary Clinton. The same applied to Harris, she said.
‘If the race is mostly about you, it is harder to win. If the race is about both of you, where folks have a clear, comparative binary choice and cannot unsee and unhear what they learn from her and about her, you’re the next president,’ she wrote.
The debate plan was threefold: Portray Harris as a loony liberal from California; tie her to all of Biden’s policies, the high prices, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, all of it; and use her own words, that her values haven’t changed, to box her in to her leftist record.
On top of that, she has been in office for three and a half years. If she had a plan for fixing things, Trump would ask, why hasn’t she got started on it yet?
He managed it at times.
He found a rich seam of attacks in tying Harris to the eruption of conflicts around the world since Biden had come to power.
‘She’s worse than Biden, in my opinion. I think he’s the worst president in the history of our country,’ he said
‘She goes down as the worst vice president in the history of our country. But let me tell you something. She is a horrible negotiator.’
Members of the Escondido Republican Women watch from their headquarters the presidential debate between Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Escondido, California
Journalists and members of the media watch from the spin room as US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participate in a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia
When he spoke, she looked across at him, letting her facial expressions do the work. At times she put her hand on her chin, adopting a quizzical pose.
He looked straight ahead when she spoke.
While she stayed calm, measured and on top of the policy detail, he raised his voice.
‘She was exquisitely well-prepared, she laid traps, and he chased every rabbit down every hole,’ said Chris Christie, no fan of Trump, on ABC after the debate ended.
He got back on track after the second commercial break in time for his closing statement, when he remembered his talking points.
‘So she just started by saying she’s going to do this, she’s going to do that. She’s going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it.’
The question for long-time Trump watchers is whether the debate changes anything. The 78-year-old nominee has long campaigned in freewheeling style with thinly-substantiated claims and personal attacks.
‘While Harris was able to get under Trump’s skin with her well prepared attacks, it’s still not clear that she overwhelmingly convinced these voters to finally make up their minds from this exchange,’ said Ron Bonjean, a longtime congressional Republican strategist.
‘The question now is how much she actually moved the needle.
‘However, Trump didn’t do himself any favors by agreeing to do this debate.’
He may also have hung himself on his own speaking time. A tally maintained by CNN showed Harris spoke for 37 minutes and 36 seconds, while Trump used up 42 minutes and 52 seconds.